The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1887-10-27

as in the case just mentioned, it will
become common thing. l know of
scores of great business houses that have
had their opportunity of vast accumula-
ton, and who ought to quit. But perhaps
for all the days of this generation the
struggle of small houses to keep alive I'M
der the overshadowing pressure of great
houses will continue; therefore, taking
things as they are, you will be wise to
preserve your equilibrium, and your
honesty, and your faith, and throw over
all the counters, and shelves, and barrels,
and hogsheads, and cotton bales, and rice
casks. the measuring light Of divine right.
And the Lord said unto me, Amos, what seest
thous And said, plumb line.
In the same way we need to measure
our theologies. All sorts of religions are
putting forth their pretensions. Some
have spiritualistic religion, and their
chief work is with ghosts, and others
religion of political economy proposing to
put an end to human misery by new
style of taxation, and there is humani-
tartan religion that looks after the body
of men and lets the soul look after itself,
and there Is a legislative religion that
proposes to rectify all wrongs
by enactment of better laws,
and there is an aesthetic re-
ligion that by rules of exquisite taste
would lift the heart out OF It's deformities,
and religions of all sorts, religions by the
pack, religions by the square foot, and re.
ligions by the ton-all of them devices of
the devil that would take the heart away
from the only religion that will ever effect
anything for the human race, and that is
the neutrality-suspicious. religion written
in the book, which begins with Genesis
and ends with Revelation, the religion of
the skies, the old religion, the God-given
religion, the everlasting religion, which
says:
Love God above all and your neighbor as
yourself
All religions but the one begin at the
wrong end, and in the wrong place. The
Bible religion demands that we first get
right with God. 1t begins at the top and
measures down, while the other religions
begin at the bottom and try to measure
up. They stand at the foot of the wall,
up to their knees in the mud of human
theory and speculation, and have plum
met and string tied fast to it. And they
throw the plummet this way, and break a
head there, and throw the plum
met another way, aud break a head
there, and then they throw it up, and it
comes down upon their own pate. Fools!
Why will you stand at the foot Of the
wall measuring up when you ought to
stand at the top measuring down?
My text gives me grand opportunity of
saying useful word to all young men
who are now forming habits for lifetime
OF what use to a stonemason or a brick
layer is a plumb line? Why not build the
wall by the unaided eye and hand? Be-
cause they are insufficient, because if there
be DETECTION in the wall it can not fur
ther on be corrected. Because by the law
of gravitation a wall must be straight in
order to be symmetrical and safe.
A young man is in danger of getting a
defect in his wall of character that NAV
never be corrected. One of the best
friends ever had died of delirium tremens
at sixty years of age, though he had not
since twenty one years-before which he
had been dissipated-touched intoxicating
liquor until that particular carousal that
took him off. Not feeling we'll in a street
on hot summer day, he stepped into a
drug store, just as you and would have
done, and asked for dose of something to
make him feel better. And there was al
cohol in the dose, and that one drop
aroused the old appetite, and he entered
the first liquor store, and stayed there until
thoroughly under the power of rum. He
entered his home a raving maniac, his
wife and daughters fleeing from his pres
ence, until he was taken to the City Hos
pital to die. The combustible material of
early habit had lain quiet for nearly forty
years, and that one spark ignited the con-
f1agration.
Remember that the wall may be one
hundred feet high, and yet detection
one foot from the foundation affects the
entire structure. And if you live one hum
dred years and do right the last eighty
years, you may, nevertheless, do some
thing at twenty years of age that will
damage all your earthly existence. All
you who have built houses for yourself or
others, am not right in saying to these
young men, you can not build wall so
high as to be independent of the character
of its foundation? A man before thirty
years of age may commit enough sin to
last him lifetime. A cat that has killed
one pigeon can not be cured. Keep it from
killing the first pigeon.
Now, John, or George, or Charles, or
William, or Alexander, or Henry, or what
ever be your Christian name or surname,
say here and now: "No wild oats for me,
no cigars or cigarettes for me, no wine or
beer for me, no nasty stories for me,
no Sunday sprees for me, am
going to start right and keep on
right. God help me, for am very weak.
From the throne of eternal Righteousness
let down to me the principles by which I
can be guided in Building every thing
from foundation to capstone. Lord God,
by the wounded hand of Christ, throw me
a plumb linev'
Lord Nelson's general direction when
going into naval battle was, no imam can
do wrong that places his ship close along
side that of the enemy. My friend. you
will never do wrong il you keep your face
alongside the Ten Commandments. Do
right, and you can be brave as Maria
Theresa, who rode up the Hill of Defiance
and shook her sword at the four corners of
the earth.
"But," you say, 'you shut us young
folks out from all fun" o no! like fun,
believe in fun. have had lots of it in my
time. But have not had to go into the
paths of sin to find it. No credit to me,
but because Of an extraordinary parental
example and influence I was kept from
outward transgressions, though my heart
was bad enough and desperately wicked.
/ have had fun illimitable, though never